Posted
by
timothy
on Saturday February 09, 2013 @01:38AM
from the seems-only-fair dept.

New submitter terbeaux writes "The documentary TPB AFK follows the creators of The Pirate Bay — Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij and Gottfrid Svartholm — through their technical and logistical trials of keeping TPB online as well as their court appearances in Sweden.
After its premiere at Berlin International Film Festival, TechCrunch is reporting that TPB AFK is now available under a Creative Commons license for purchase, download on TPB, or viewing on YouTube. The budget for the film was raised on Kickstarter, where the makers achieved twice the funding goal in the allotted month-long funding campaign. The film already has 40,000 YouTube views, 19,000 torrent seeders, and over 2,000 paid downloads. There are public screenings happening world-wide."

Maybe, but language can be whatever we want it to be. Crowdfunded is a better verb as it's not linked to one specific website and kickstarted can also apply to motorbikes, although I doubt that it'd create any confusion.

Notice how the sentence of the OP was "Acquire funding through Kickstarted before you begin filming." There the word "Kickstarted" is used as a noun, and thus Osgeld's question "what is kickstarted?" makes sense.

He obviously meant kickstarter, it's like this website, where you can ask people for money to make projects, movies, music, even toys and gadgets! and then offer people rewards for making contributions. I'm surprised you have never heard of it, it's pretty common for interesting projects to be mentioned online and even in day to day conversation. Everyone has their blind spots though I guess, so I guess we can't fault you for a simple oversight, it would be like mocking someone over a simple spelling mistak

its a proud day for doing stuff you love, but not all of us can dedicate the time or money to give stuff away while hoping someone drops a dollar in the guitar case, cause its just not happening

Which is why you do this stuff for fun on your off time, and have a regular job like everyone else to pay the bills. It's usually known as a "hobby". Some people are so dedicated to their hobbies in that they scrimp and save for years then take a whole year off or something to just pursue it.

Some people have even written great pieces of software during their off time, used by millions of people, given away for free, with little expectation or demand of payment in return.

Others have created books, artwork, music, and other cultural goods that are given away with little expectation of remuneration (usually the remuneration comes from permission to re-use said work in some context).

Hell, sometimes the compensation comes back in the form of recognition - which can pay even more dividends, especially in a crowded field where you are merely a name amongst others. Doing something high profile and "newsworthy" can elevate you above the other names and get some real payoffs, as well.

There are lots of reasons to do something. Money is one, and pretty common, but it doesn't have to be even the biggest reason why some people do things. Otherwise why do people volunteer at charities? Some people get paid a nominal amount, others give their time and effort for free to them.

There's lots of reasons that people should be getting paid for their work. For example, if our music, movie, and software industries are supposed to be built on the backs of volunteer labor on our 'off hours from work', you will find that: there is a general lack of professionalism (because people don't have the time to get really good at their craft), that there will be a chronic lack of volunteers (how many awesome open-source games are there again?), and it means society is getting som

You don't have the "right" to make a living off of your artistic endeavors anymore than I have the "right" to make a living from making paper airplanes, having sex with college girls, or selling snowcones. You, like anyone else have the right to make as much money as you can, in any way you like, as long as you don't:

a) break the lawb) piss people off enough that they kill you

That's IT.

It's fine to complain about not getting paid appropriately for your work, but this sense of "artistic entitlement" needs to GO. If you can't hack it trying to support yourself doing what you love, either fix it, or suck it up like EVERYONE ELSE ON THE PLANET and do something different.

You are not entitled to make a comfortable living off of your art.

And as for "professionalism" argument, if you call all the bullshit I see on the Grammy's and hear on the radio "professional", then you can keep your professional works and their "150 years after the death of the artist" or whatever ridiculous length has been bought and paid for by the media companies.

You want to fix artists not being compensated appropriately? Band together and get rid of organizations like the MPAA and the RIAA, because they represent "artists" and they're making "artists" look like a bunch of greedy assholes. And why would anyone care if they aren't compensating a bunch of greedy assholes?

Now get of my lawn! I've got to go to WORK. Because not all of us are FORTUNATE enough to be able to feed our kids by farting the tune for "Old McDonald had a Farm" into a cup or selling macaroni portraits of Che Guverra.

free link: 40,000free download that requires an ounce of thought: 19,000pay for this crap: 2,000

its a proud day for doing stuff you love, but not all of us can dedicate the time or money to give stuff away while hoping someone drops a dollar in the guitar case, cause its just not happening

You don't seem to get it. It did happen. Right there it happened. Did holywood pick this movie up? Would it have ever been made had any normal studio been involved? Your media is spoon fed to you, you get exactly what will get you to buy more shit. They play on your hopes and fears to get you to buy into their business model. Can free work? Well it depends on what your goal is. Was your goal to make lots of money? Well then it's not likely to work. Was your goal to make a documentary about a subject the gen

"John Reston: Television can control public opinion more effectively than armies of secret police, because television is entirely voluntary. The American government forces our children to attend school, but nobody forces them to watch T.V. Americans of all ages *submit* to television. Television is the American ideal. Persuasion without coercion. Nobody makes us watch. Who could have predicted that a *free* people would voluntarily spend one fifth of their lives sitting in front of a *box* with pictures? Fifteen years sitting in prison is punishment. But 15 years sitting in front of a television set is entertainment. And the average American now spends more than one and a half years of his life just watching television commercials. Fifty minutes, every day of his life, watching commercials. Now, that's power."

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"The United States has it's own propaganda, but it's very effective because people don't realize that it's propaganda. And it's subtle, but it's actually a much stronger propaganda machine than the Nazis had but it's funded in a different way. With the Nazis it was funded by the government, but in the United States, it's funded by corporations and corporations they only want things to happen that will make people want to buy stuff. So whatever that is, then that is considered okay and good, but that doesn't necessarily mean it really serves people's thinking - it can stupify and make not very good things happen."- Crispin Glover: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000417/bio [imdb.com]

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"It's only logical to assume that conspiracies are everywhere, because that's what people do. They conspire. If you can't get the message, get the man." - Mel Gibson (from an interview)

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." - William Casey, CIA Director

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"The real reason for the official secrecy, in most instances, is not to keep the opposition (the CIA's euphemistic term for the enemy) from knowing what is going on; the enemy usually does know. The basic reason for governmental secrecy is to keep you, the American public, from knowing - for you, too, are considered the opposition, or enemy - so that you cannot interfere. When the public does not know what the government or the CIA is doing, it cannot voice its approval or disapproval of their actions. In fact, they can even lie to your about what they are doing or have done, and you will not know it. As for the second advantage, despite frequent suggestion that the CIA is a rogue elephant, the truth is that the agency functions at the direction of and in response to the office of the president. All of its major clandestine operations are carried out with the direct approval of or on direct orders from the White House. The CIA is a secret tool of the president - every president. And every president since Truman has lied to the American people in order to protect the agency. When lies have failed, it has been the duty of the CIA to take the blame for the president, thus protecting him. This is known in the business as "plausible denial." The CIA, functioning as a secret instrument of the U.S. government and the presidency, has long misused and abused history and continues to do so."- Victor Marchetti, Propaganda and Disinformation: How the CIA Manufactures History

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George Carlin:

"The real owners are the big wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions. Forget the politicians, they're an irrelevancy. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don't. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations. They've long since bought and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the statehous

I found Monique Wadsted to be truely insightful in this. Describing how this is all a cult, and she should know a cult from defending the church of Scientology, and that's it's a myth young people have issues with copyright. Her knowledge bomb was how she never thought file sharing would last and that it's all just a fad. Thanks Monique and thanks for helping bring law back to Sweden!

I found Monique Wadsted to be truely insightful in this. Describing how this is all a cult, and she should know a cult from defending the church of Scientology, and that's it's a myth young people have issues with copyright. Her knowledge bomb was how she never thought file sharing would last and that it's all just a fad. Thanks Monique and thanks for helping bring law back to Sweden!

The Wadstedt MAQS lawyer is deeply in bed with Scientology and this is scary. The Scientology cult has previosly even bullied the Swedish parliament to removing public documents. That Scientology is behind the copyright bullying of teenagers downloading music and movies is horrifying. no cult should be able to have this influence over public policy.

Be sure to watch the south park episode about scientology and educate yourself about what a cult really is, and what is dangerous about a cult.

Err not sure how you jumped to that conclusion? If *anyone* is "hiding" wouldn't that be the one who isn't in the country? I personally believe you waive all rights to being a "coward" when you face up against your overlords, to stand up in the first place takes more courage than the vast majority of people on this planet will ever have.

He wouldn't be worried about how they treat these new "hackers" and cyber terrorists either, surely it wouldn't be a rough prison sentence compared to killers and rapists

I also have a feature film recently completed and to free download via TPB [thepiratebay.se] and stream via Youtube [youtube.com]. It's a comedy/horror called The Amateur Monster Movie [imdb.com] and is similar in style to Shaun of the Dead.

We have a second film in post production right now to be released in Spring 2013 and a third in preproduction looking for a 2014 release. Most likely they will be released for free as well. You can find more info on our website [spadeheartclub.com]. Hope you guys enjoy it.

I also have a feature film recently completed and to free download via TPB [thepiratebay.se] and stream via Youtube [youtube.com]. It's a comedy/horror called The Amateur Monster Movie [imdb.com] and is similar in style to Shaun of the Dead.

We have a second film in post production right now to be released in Spring 2013 and a third in preproduction looking for a 2014 release. Most likely they will be released for free as well. You can find more info on our website [spadeheartclub.com]. Hope you guys enjoy it.

Telling ones story isn't necesarily ones promotion. It's a story. Though.. average visitor of this site has too big of an ego to not think of it as unjust to him/his projects.

Anyway.. tpb movie didn't 'promote' them, at least not in my eyes. I only found interesting them as some 'random' guys that did something, most probably by random chance... or being at the right time at the right place, and having the 'right' idea. That's all. Suprnova guy 10 yrs ago.. was the same. If he fought all kinds of mafiaa, it

I freely admit that I have no idea about the TPB trials (although I have, of course, heard about them) because it's not something that interests me greatly (I've never visited TPB and never used a torrent. Yes, I must be old). Nonetheless I watched the film. It was definitely interesting, but somewhat one-sided. As someone who really has no idea about the trials and appeals the film doesn't seem to present both sides of the case in equal light. Maybe it's not meant to, I don't know.

It's not explicitly stated that the footage is "actual" but I am going to assume it is. So, the picture in my mind (influenced by the film) is that there were three guys. Two of these guys seemed to abuse substances (although I pass no judgement on that) and ran away. The other guy was "a good guy" and stayed to accept the outcomes of the Swedish legal system. Throughout the whole film all three of them seemed to assume that the law would finally vindicate them. I guess that's part optimism and part bravado. I am not 100% any of them convincingly stood for any "political viewpoint" at all; a lot of their views could be viewed as post facto opinions, but put in their shoes I may have behaved similarly.

Anyway, it was an interesting watch. It's not very often at all that I'll watch through 1.5 hrs of something like this so I applaud the film makers. I wish there was more insight into "the other side of the story" but I suppose that would have doubled the film length and I'd have never gotten to the end.

As someone who really has no idea about the trials and appeals the film doesn't seem to present both sides of the case in equal light. Maybe it's not meant to, I don't know.

Well, there wasn't really many doubts about the facts of the case. The other side's position was basically that by facilitating file sharing through torrents and trackers and making ad revenue in the process they were part of the illegal activity and guilty. To compare it to US standards in the Betamax case the court found in a 5-4 decision that you are not liable for copyright infringement by third parties as long as your product or service has substantial non-infringing uses, but in MGM vs Grokster they f

it's a little like selling guns as murder weapons - it doesn't fly well in any country.

Not really, as murder is illegal everywhere. It'd be more like selling whiskey as something to get you drunk -- this shouldn't be an issue in the US, but you're going to have problems with the courts in, say, Saudi Arabia.

It's so annoying that TPB is blocked. There are now two movies on this page that I can't get. I figured out a trick some time ago, using "\n" to separate lines in the HTTP request, which is invalid HTTP. That's accepted by the Pirate Bay server and not blocked.printf "GET/user/SimonKlose/ HTTP/1.1\nHost: thepiratebay.se\n\n" |nc thepiratebay.se 80 | grep "magnet:"

Anyway, I'm not going to suggest that TPB make a text-friendly version, as this loophole will just be blocked too.

Second method: Several ISPs use simple DNS blocking, so try Google Public DNS [google.com]. (This doesn't apply to OP, but may help others.) On Windows, you can use the following command to see if it might work, without changing your DNS: nslookup thepiratebay.org 8.8.8.8 (the IP right now should be 194.71.107.50).

If the "Cached" link is missing from the Google search result, click on the search result, then copy the URL (the real URL, not the Google redirect URL), prepend "http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:" to the URL. (example) [googleusercontent.com]

Peter Sunde himself has mixed feelings about TPB AFK. In the end, he's not very happy with it...

On the one hand, the movie is great in terms of photography, editing, sound. The experience the viewer gets of the movie is kind of like a thriller. But on the other hand, it’s not my view of the things that actually happened during this period.

The film maker, Simon, who I consider a good friend, and I have different views of what the movie should be. It’s his film though so he makes all the shots. There are lots of scenes in the movie that are well edited to be something different than they are. This is all part of making a movie, drama is needed. I’m not happy with all of them, and I don’t like the dark and gloomy view that Simon has of the past years. The editor (whom I’ve never met, so he has no real idea of who I am, just what has been filmed of me) has cut the movie in a way that is very different from what I’ve experienced.